Where Blizzard's Design Philosophy Failed (And Succeeded)

[DTWolfwood]

always a good idea to work together. you might think your wasting time getting in everyones grill about every little thing but when the group gets together, ideas come quicker, implementation becomes easier, and in the end u save time and money! win win! \o/

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

Well, as for his comments on Silvermoon, i found it to be quite a playable city. Yeah there are long walking distances, but Stormwind has them too, being all segmented and that, and Silvermoon is just one of the most beautiful things in the game. The reason it's empty is hardly its design, but location. It's just out of everyone's way, only low level blood elves and jewelcrafters have reasons to go there. For everything else, you go to Orgrimmar. Undercity is also empty. So is Darnassus and Exodar, because they are also secluded. Nothing wrong with the cities themselves.

 

[Worgen]

Im always confused when ppl say they played wow for the story, I mean its just so easy to miss.... and doesnt really make much sense if you think about it too much.

because they love the lore of the early warcraft games?
anyway it additionally made less sense due to the fact that they retconned quite a bit of stuff.
but i totally understand it (i played on a less the legal server to check up on the lore first hand)

the lore isnt consistant even in the games, they pretty much redid alot of it between each game and much more so for wow, the story line has always been a mess and mostly char driven, I mean thrall is an interesting char and I suppose I have to give them credit for making orks something more then just the usual savages but really they only did that in war 3... and I suppose the adventure game that never came out.

 

[Proteus214]

Very true, their engine design philosophies are actually really good. Increasing playability at the cost of realism has really helped as WoW matured. I wish that I could say the same for their raid and pvp design philosophies. The veterans are bored and the newbies are left alone and intimidated by the staggering amount of empty content and the already-matured gaming community.

Either you're at endgame and have been there for a while or you're new and will probably quit after a week or two.

WoW has jumped the shark.

 

[Charlie the Grenadier]

Very interesting article, this sounds like a man with a plan.

 

[Carlston]

Game design. Normal item = grey, magic = green, rare =blue, epic = purple.

What they failed on is well most of WOW's build was a lot on diablo 2. And since they took 10 years to make diablo 3, they lost cash not making new games and piddling with WOW so much.

Except WoW rakes in an estimated 800 million a year. They aren't losing any money.

Yeah, that's great. But from what I hear Starcraft 2 is pathetic and looks and feels 10 years old, and diablo 3 probley will to. I guess if they make us not want to play the great games they built their name on they can just continue with the good old WOW money pit. And nothing creative will ever flow again....

 

[Arcticflame]

Game design. Normal item = grey, magic = green, rare =blue, epic = purple.

What they failed on is well most of WOW's build was a lot on diablo 2. And since they took 10 years to make diablo 3, they lost cash not making new games and piddling with WOW so much.

Except WoW rakes in an estimated 800 million a year. They aren't losing any money.

Yeah, that's great. But from what I hear Starcraft 2 is pathetic and looks and feels 10 years old, and diablo 3 probley will to. I guess if they make us not want to play the great games they built their name on they can just continue with the good old WOW money pit. And nothing creative will ever flow again....

Uh, I'm in the starcraft 2 beta.. and as someone who barely played the original, and was never a fan of the series in particular, I very much like the game.